Macaroni

DEAR SOS: I used to have a recipe for chocolate pudding cake with the cake portion at the top and the pudding at the bottom. I lost my recipe. Can you help? --DORA DEAR DORA: This homey cake was the rage during the '30s, '40s and early '50s.

Dear SOS: I have been to Lawry's Carvery many times. I wish I knew how to make their baked macaroni and cheese. I hope you can acquire this recipe. They have many of their recipes on the website, but the mac 'n' cheese is not on it. Arlene Rebuyon Rancho Santa Margarita Dear Arlene: Lawry's was happy to share its take on this classic comfort food, which we've adapted below. This makes a lot of mac 'n' cheese, so it's perfect for a summertime get-together.

December 17, 1992 | MIKE SPENCER, Mike Spencer is a member of The Times Orange County Edition staff. and

There are a lot of people in Orange County who are confident that had Fred Burrell's ribs been around at the time of creation, God wouldn't have bothered Adam. OK, so his Rib Cage restaurant fare may not be that heavenly, but it's certainly good enough to allow Burrell to be expanding in this age of business retrenchment. In addition to the original Rib Cage in Santa Ana, there's a second on Sand Canyon in Irvine and a third about to open in Newport Beach.

"I put this off all my life." So reads the self-written epitaph of the unusual man who was a gofer for Lucky Lindy, a publicist for Bette Davis, a student of aerodynamics, a cameraman who pioneered helicopter photography, a golf doctor, a macaroni mogul and a mortgage lender. Robert William, who headed the Western United States' largest pasta manufacturing company for 30 years, died Dec. 7 of leukemia and pneumonia at his home in Hancock Park. He was 86.

Boredom, for Jack Lemmon, would seem to be a blank page in the diary; a day without plans and challenges. Like Lewis Carroll's White Rabbit, he is always on the move, rushing along with that familiar head-down gait, his appetite for life apparently undiminished by age. For him, last year was a crowded one, a year of living vigorously. He made two movies--"Macaroni" in Naples, Italy; "Crisis" in Los Angeles. He went to Japan for the 40th anniversary of the dropping of the A-bomb.

We can discuss whether pasta salads are "in" or "out" as a trend, but judging from take-out windows, there is no question that they are constantly in demand. This is especially true of salads made of tortellini, ravioli and other stuffed pastas. It's so easy to be tempted when they are attractively displayed at gourmet shops and fine supermarkets. But these delicious salads cost so much less when you prepare them yourself.

Tough times call for some serious comfort food, and macaroni and cheese is a staple of that category. That's added up to a nice payday for manufacturers. As a whole, macaroni and cheese sales are up 25% over the last four years, to $802 million. Kraft Macaroni & Cheese Dinner accounts for the vast majority of category growth, which likely means more parents, willingly or not, have joined their kids in more bright-orange dinners. There are much smaller but also growing competitors, such as Annie's Inc. of Napa, Calif.

Violet When Jared Simons set out to create a macaroni and cheese to serve at his stylish new American restaurant, he didn't mess around. "I like to make the dish as rich as possible," the chef says. So he sautes cubes of serrano ham with leeks, adds heavy cream and parmesan, mixes in elbow macaroni, then bakes individual servings finished with Gruyere and bread crumbs for a crispy top. * Mac and cheese, $7.50. 3221 Pico Blvd., Santa Monica, (310) 453-9113.

Members of the Korean Senior Citizen's Assn. clear out before lunch. The men hustling over homemade chang-gi boards and the coiffed grandmas taking English classes must go home. Their lively chatter is food for the soul, but the center's cupboards offer nothing to eat. Despite the demand, the center lacks money to buy lunches and the know-how to access public meal programs for Asian seniors in the San Fernando Valley.

Pots were boiling, pastries were baking and bodies were moving Wednesday as students at Aliso Niguel High School prepared a special luncheon to announce the start of an internship program to teach students the restaurant business. Students spend 15 hours a week working at local restaurants as part of their Culinary Arts Department curriculum. They also may receive community college credit.